By Momodou Camara

Football is a means of communication, a way of bringing Africans and Danes together so as to rejoice after nine months of being indoors. After the cold winter season people come together to say 'hello' and 'happy new year'. We allow everyone to participate in the tournament and share of ourselves', says Solomon, the executive secretary of the organising committee. Sunday afternoons during the summer months are like a mini African carnival at Fælledparken. There is also very strong networking involved because apart from football there are other social activities such as fund raising. It is a gateway for Africans to get to aquainted and exchange knowledge about Denmark and the society they live in. "During the winter time everybody is indoors because it is very cold, and you go to work and you come back and stay home. When summer comes you want to go out and Fælledparken is the only place where we go on Sundays to enjoy ourselves and meet others", says Solomon. You see people you haven't seen in the past year, and we go oh, how are you, you're still in the country, and so on'.

Africa football 1998

This year's tournament is between twelve African teams from the whole of Africa. As long as one has a team you are welcome to participate. "Countries like Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have enough players to make their own team. But if we take for instance Guinea-Bissau, you find that they are mixed with people from South Africa, East Africa, some of them are even from Ghana, and still they play for Guinea-Bissau. Others like the Zanzibar team are a combination of Danish, African, and various other ethnicities. It's for every good sportsman who wants to play football. It's up to the individual player which country he wants to play for, and a good sportsman will always be ready to play in any team" says Solomon. Africans and other nationalities have been conducting football matches for years, without any permanent organization. People used just to come to the park and form teams and play against each other. Every year a new committee is formed and dissolved after the summer. For the passed two years however, a committee has been functioning under the leadership of Mussa Khamis Baucha, who has a mandate from all teams to chair for a four year period. This works out well allowing the leadership time to plan ahead. "For example what is going to happen in 1999, will already be planned this year" says Solomon. The executive committee was also able to obtain a permit for the use of the fields. In the past, other teams would interrupt their games because they were allegedly illegal. "Last year, sometimes when we were about to start a tournament, some team would come and tell us that we had to leave the field, and since we did not have a permit, we had. This year we have a permit which has made the whole arrangement easier", says Solomon.

Strict rules this year

The purpose of the tournament is getting to to know one another and to welcome to the summer. Before each match Solomon, Mussa, and Robert King (the financial secretary), go to the fields explaining this to the players. Discipline is at times difficult to maintain when it comes some of the young players. This situation has been difficult for the Danish referees, which the committee has been using. Solomon continues, 'this year they promised to come to the tournament, but at the last minute we didn't have any confirmation from them. Now we have two referees. One has been a national referee in Togo, and is now in Denmark, the other used to be a national goal keeper for Uganda". When asked whether they are members of the Danish football league, Solomon replies "For the past year we have been trying for membership and we hope to register teams in the future. However, there are many of our players who play with different clubs in Denmark. Last year three players from our teams were picked at Fælledparken, by European teams, and are now playing in Germany, Yugoslavia and Turkey".

Saidou cup

Sunday at Fælledparken is not only about football. It is like attending a market place. People come and play football, then after the tournament they sit down, eat and drink walking from one tent to another socialising. "We want the Danish to come too, so that they don't only read negative things about us, but can see how we are, in a social setting" continues Solomon. Various nationalities meet at the park, when they experiance a calamity such as a death within their community or have topics of urgency to discuss. When Saidou, a Gambian player residing in Denmark, died earlier this year, Africans from different countries who knew him from the football games in Fælledparken, gathered at a community centre and each donated money according to financial ability, in aid of transportation expenses for the burial back home. Around forty thousand kroner was collected. Usually the money collected on such occasions is given to the grieving family. 'We are dedicating this years Cup to the memory of Sadou. He was a very good and active sportsman. We played at the Images of Africa Cup together, and in other different tournaments. Saidou played for the Gambian team two years ago, and also last year. We had a trophy that we hadn't used, and so decided to use it in the memory of Saidou', Solomon says.

African umbrella organization

The organising committee has never received any financial assistance from the Danish authorities, but divide the expenses among the participating teams. 'Each team paid eight hundred kroner this year. The funds go for the purchase of the trophies, medals, footballs, and all other necessities', says Robert. The present executive committee consists of Chairman Mussa Khamis Baucha from Zanzibar, General Secretary Solomon from Nigeria, Financial Secretary Robert King from Gambia and Richard from Ivory Coast as vice Chairman. Every team also have two representatives who have a say in the executive committee. The African football association in Copenhagen has the potential of being a powerful centre of activity. Functioning as an umbrella organization for social and cultural, as well as sportive interaction, within the African community here in Denmark. Solomon says he would like to see this happen, and various attempts have been made. However, they tend to run into obstacles: "Often people make up arrangements using the organization only to serve their own benefit, thus not really helping the African community at all. We who are organising this tournament know each other and we are really working to assemble Africans living in this country. We want do a lot of things for the community, and we have the ideas to do so," says the industrious executive secretary.

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This article is published on print in Djembe Magazine, no. 25, July 1998 . Feel free to quote or reproduce any article in Djembe under condition of stating source and obtaining permission from author. Photos are stricly copyright of the photographer. Contents of the article are purely the opinion of the author, and do not in any way reflect the official position or thoughts of Djembe on those issues. Consider Djembe an uncensored, open "bulletin board" -----